Colombia stands out as an oasis of conservatism amid Latin America's growing legion of leftist leaders and Sunday's elections are unlikely to change that with President Alvaro Uribe expected to win by a landslide. But a last-minute surge by a leftist candidate nicknamed "Santa Claus" has provided the lone surprise in a campaign dominated by Uribe, Washington's staunchest ally in the region. Colombia's democratic left, long blemished by its association with the four-decade-old guerrilla insurgency, has been invigorated by the surprise performance of Sen. Carlos Gaviria, the candidate for the Alternative Democratic Pole party, or PDA. Unknown to half of Colombians just a few months ago, the academic and former head of Colombia's highest court has leapfrogged past Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa to move into second place. Since March, polls show that support for Gaviria has tripled to 24%. ... http://www.usatoday.com

Ukraine's new parliament has met for the first time since the general election in March. The election was praised as the freest and fairest ever held in the former Soviet republic. The pro-Russian opposition won the largest share of the vote but failed to clinch enough for outright victory. Talks are said to be continuing between President Viktor Yushchenko's party and other pro-Western parties, who have not yet managed to form a coalition. The BBC's Helen Fawkes, in Kiev, says it is has proved extremely difficult for former allies from the Orange Revolution - especially Mr Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko - to reunite. But following Thursday's opening session, a coalition has to be formed within one month, otherwise the president could dissolve parliament and hold a new election. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5015356.stm

A gunfight between a Palestinian security force and a Hamas militia Thursday killed one police officer and wounded four others in the latest outbreak of internal Palestinian fighting, doctors and witnesses said. The death brought to at least 10 the number of people killed in internal violence over the past month. Both Hamas and the security force accused each other of sparking the shootout. The fight in Gaza City occurred when a group of police riding in a car on their way back from the funeral of a top security commander clashed with the new militia, security officials said. Hamas militiamen said they were attacked by a group of gunmen at their post in the middle of the city. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-05-25-palestiniangunfight_x.htm?csp=34

Pope Benedict XVI has been greeted by cheering crowds at the start of a visit to Poland - the land of his immediate predecessor John Paul II. There was choral singing and applause to mark his arrival, while the streets of Warsaw were festooned with the flags of Poland and the Vatican. Speaking in Polish, the German-born Pope said he had "come to follow in the footsteps" of John Paul II. On Sunday he will visit the Nazi German extermination camp at Auschwitz. More than a million people - mostly Jews - died at the camp, where the Pope will pray for reconciliation between nations and faiths. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5014626.stm

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Thursday he is trying to find out why it took his agency two weeks to reveal the theft of personal data from 26.5 million veterans, telling Congress he is "mad as hell" that he wasn't told right away. Under questioning, Nicholson acknowledged that his deputy secretary, Gordon Mansfield, was the highest level official told about the May 3 burglary, but did not act. But he declined to say whether Mansfield would be fired or why he might have kept quiet in what has become one of the nation's largest security breaches. "The employee promptly reported the theft to the local police and to the Department of Veterans Affairs. But it was not until May 16th that I was notified," Nicholson said. "As a veteran, I am outraged." ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/24/national/main1649625.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1649625

Forget the talk in Washington about giving peacemaking a chance. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's trip to the White House was in reality an important step toward imposing a border unilaterally on the Palestinians. The shift in U.S. language to describe Prime Minister Olmert's ideas for dividing up the occupied West Bank from "interesting" to "bold" might not look like much, but was more than the Israelis had expected in advance. The insistence by both Olmert and President George W. Bush that diplomacy with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would have to be tried before unilateral measures was seen in Israel as neither particularly unexpected nor meaningful. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2003304